Even jeans are too alluring for the Sharia police in Aceh

Sharia
police in the Indonesian province
of Aceh are stopping
women dressed in jeans and forcing them to change into long government issued
skirts.

The
semiautonomous province on the northern island of Sumatra
has the highest proportion of Muslims in the country. In order to bring an end to decades of fighting between Muslim separatists and the army, the
national government consented to the adoption of Sharia law in Aceh in 2002. To
enforce the new laws, a special unit of police, called Wilayatul
Hisbah or "the vice and virtue patrol", was established.

On
26 May, the West Aceh district of the province
intensified their crackdown on women wearing tight fitting trousers by issuing
the local police with 20,000 long skirts. Women who are stopped at checkpoints
for breaching the bylaw are now furnished with a skirt and have their trousers
confiscated. The women cannot be arrested however.

Along
with the law - which was passed in 2005 and demands loose fitting, long-sleeved
tops and a long headscarf which covers the neck - the Aceh province has also
brought in laws which ban homosexual relations, the consumption of alcohol, and
relations between unmarried people of the opposite sex. The most recent law,
passed in parliament in September 2009, will see adulterers stoned to death if
it is passed by the provincial governor.

The
regulations have shocked human rights activists in the rest of Indonesia,
which is a secular state whose 200 million Muslims follow a moderate form
of the religion.

Fashion police in action

A checkpoint, or “razia”, on the Simpang Mesra crossroads in Banda Aceh on 4 May 2010, where 194 people were stopped, lectured and registered as offenders (the government-issued skirts were yet to come into force). Photos taken by Joko Sutranto. Posted on Flickr by anonymous.

Police check each vehicle.

A lecture is given to jeans-wearers.

The offenders' names and ID numbers are registered.

“People here are surprised by just how constraining Islamic law is in practice”

Sri Wahyuni is head of women's affairs at
the Aceh People's Party and a researcher at the University of Syiah
Kuala.

The problem is that the clothing policy in Aceh is confusing for women. For
a start, almost all women in Aceh wear long pants rather than a skirt. After
all, our traditional dress comprises long pants and a blouse. No skirt.
Secondly, regulations differ between districts; but in West
Aceh [where the skirts are being distributed] the law applies not
only to residents but also to Muslim women who are only visiting the district.

As a result, people are nervous. On the one hand they are happy because
their religious beliefs are being formally acknowledged, but on the other hand
they are surprised by just how constraining Islamic law is in practice. What we
have in Aceh is a silent majority; people keep their mouths shut because they're
afraid to resist and to get called an ‘enemy of Islam'. There is no institution
that is tough enough to fight against this level of intimidation.

As for the national government, Jakarta
does not care that Islamic law is causing trouble here. But the locals still
have a very limited understanding of Islamic law; all they ‘know' is that
Islamic law is a good thing. But until now they never thought about the
practical implications of it.

I think I will leave Aceh if the situation gets worse. I worry about the
development of my two daughters. I want them to live in an environment that
reflects freedom, where there are no religious or faith-bound restrictions."

Caught trying to jump a checkpoint

An Aceh-based blogger
posted this photo of a newspaper report on his blog. The woman pictured had
tried to drive through a checkpoint without stopping. One of the policemen
attempted to stop her, knocking her off the vehicle. The blogger who cited the
story prefers to remain anonymous.

As can be seen from the "d's" comment and other comments on this page and also in the text of the article above, religion is divisive, tribal and backward. Stop believeing the priests and Imam's and start thinking for yourselves.

A radical Islamic preacher who has publicly declared his support for Osama bin Laden is to be allowed to lecture in Britain.
…….Extremist Zakir Naik….. The 44-year-old has also claimed that Western women make themselves-more susceptible to rape' by wearing revealing clothing…….”

Where in Qur'an does it say that jeans are not allowed? When did pants become a "no, no" for women? In short, the laws of this region is not sharia as it is labeled, and if it is fiqh how are they being established to reflect or mirror what they call sharia? It seems that there are other influences in the law making of this region.